‘How collaboration with records management can simplify your job;’ a new white paper from the American Records Management Association (ARMA) authored by Brian Barnier of ValueBridge Advisors, offers help to IT leaders seeking to align IT with records and information management (RIM). The whitepaper suggests a practical path to a better use of proven industry practices in both records and information management. Barnier proposes a ‘streamlined, cross-silo’ approach that addresses the needs of the business by targeting a ‘stable IT solution design point.’ The IT/RIM interface is critical in companies faced with legal ‘e-discovery’ demands and compliance requirements. These have ‘spidery legs’ that touch everything, catalyzing IT’s coordination with RIM professionals. Elsewhere, product development or geographic expansion drives new uses of records and information. These may involve issues that are visible to IT leaders such as cloud computing, social media, mobile devices and data migration.
RIM’s involvement in such projects is often focused on compliance and legal issues, usually motivated by evidence or retention needs. This is an opportunity for IT to engage RIM leaders and collaborate on business-driven projects. A Forrester Research/ARMA survey carried out late last year determined that only 20% of RIM leaders report to IT (simplifying cooperation). In the other 80%, CIOs need to go through other executives to tap into the expertise of the RIM team. The six page whitepaper offers a lot of advice on getting these two communities to understand each other and collaborate. In particular, Barnier offers a mapping between the RIM framework of ARMA’s generally accepted recordkeeping principles (GARP), the information governance maturity model and corresponding IT-focused guidance such as COBIT, TOGAF and ITIL.
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